Janine

I saw something amazing today. I watched one of my best friends jump off the edge of a cliff. She is on her way to the airport with her life packed in her suitcase. She is on her way to Africa. She is moving there. She is leaving her life and her family and her friends and all that she has ever known to step into a world she has never seen. Leaving the comforts of familiarity for absolutely no idea what awaits her. She is choosing to walk on water, to step out on faith with everything she has, and pray that God catches her when she jumps. How can faith ever grow if not trusted and tried? How can we figure out if God and His promises are really true if we never let go of our life long enough to trust Him with it; to see if He'll really catch us when we jump. She is freefalling, and I have a feeling she is going to learn more in this jump about God and life and herself than most of us will ever take the time to discover. You have to trust to grow; jump to fly. How else can we ever learn how big our God is, if we never in a lifetime, give Him the chance to show us. You have to step out of the boat to walk on water. Have I ever taken this step? Have you? What a waste it seems, to live a lifetime in fear, and never discover how great we were each intended to be. We are children of God. We were all born to be great.

I'm convinced lately that we are all in the middle of a huge, beautiful story that is so much bigger than us. And the truth that i'm realizing is that what this story becomes, is only what we choose for it to be. We are all what we have made ourselves into being.

I am blessed to be surrounded by people that are not afraid to jump; that encourage me to. David is hiking the Appalachain Trail. Jason is in New Zealand. Janine is on her way to Africa. Liz just returned from Alaska and the Virgin Islands. I work day in and day out with people that have jumped, and not just talked about it, but packed up their entire lives to move to the desert to see who God wants them to become. It's become a life, not just a short adventure. These people have all jumped, and not because they moved to a far away place away from home; because at some point every big adventure just becomes another pretty beach or waterfall in a world or culture away from all the people you know and love; purposeless if not for something more than just a new setting. They jumped because they had the courage to leave familiarity for a dream or something bigger than themselves. And I have seen so many others in my life do the same through families, marriages, children and jobs. All of our cliffs are different, but indeed there. And if we haven't seen them, I'd dare to say it's because we're not looking.

I am inspired by Janine and her life. By the fact that she woke up today and thought, "I'm moving to Africa." She is giving up her comforts, her American privlege of Starbucks and crowded highways, for one of dirt streets and bucket showers in one of the most poverty stricken countries in the world. She is giving up the American dream for her dreams. To help others and make this world a better place by her presence there. To live amongst the tears of heartache and brokeness as adults and children die from starvation and disease. This is real and she is choosing to take on the tears and burdens of these people as her own. There is huge risk in allowing your heart to break with the burdens of others living around us; to carry their heartbreak as though it was our own.

The world is screaming at her not to go. Not to give up her dreams, and easy life with good money for this. "You are throwing your life away," they say. They do not know her. These ARE her dreams. And she's living them out, not throwing them away. She sees the world different than them. And in their "openmindedness" they haven't stopped their screaming long enough to accept that her dream is different. But regardless, she is having the courage to live it. Not many do this. That's why when they do, we name streets after them and give them awards. People don't like to be challenged. They don't like others to take such big leaps that it makes them look at their own lives and wonder if they are doing it right. So in fear, we tell them they are wrong. We want to build their walls back up because we are too fearful to step beyond our own.

I imagine that when Janine returns she will have stories that will shock us all. She will have seen life lived at it's rawest, at it's realest. She will have seen heartbreak and beauty, maybe in the same breath. And she will have seen God show up in ways that are impossible to explain to those of us not standing alongside her, witnessing this life with her. I'm sure there are stories that she will be hesitant to tell, because in our scheduled, controlled lives, we could never begin to imagine or believe. I am excited for her to return. To sit down with her over coffee and be challenged by stories that will rock my core; that will stretch me to believe that there is so much more to this world and my God than I have ever known or experienced.

And when she returns and tells these stories, she will no doubt be met with the response, "I wish I could live a life like that." And the reality and response to that, is you could, we all could. Life is what we choose it to be. Within our kids and our families and our jobs and our priorities and responsibilities, we have all chosen. And these things don't limit us. But we allow them to. And in many ways where Janine has risked to journey beyond the walls of fear into the unknown, into faith; most of us choose to live safe and secure within these walls. And within those walls, we are choosing never to see the realness and the heartaches of this world, of other people's worlds. But we are also choosing not to see the magnificance that is so much greater than our seeking minds can fathom. I read a quote recently, it has rung in my ears since. "How much God do you have in your life? I can tell you: As much as you want."

It doesn't take moving to Africa to step beyond these walls into faith, it just takes examining our own lives, our own dreams into finding who God indends us to become. We were all intended to change this world, the secret is in finding out how, for each of our own lives, in our own circumstances, where we are today. In a coffee shop in El Paso, TX, how will I change the world today?

So thank you Janine, for having the courage to jump and follow your own dreams. And in that, giving me the courage to live out my own. Thank you for never letting me forget to dream. I believe great risk involves great gain. You have given your whole life, I have a feeling you will receive the world. Thank you for not being afraid to look within yourself, where it all begins. "Everyone thinks of changing humanity, no one thinks of changing himself." You are one of the strongest women I know. I can't wait to hear the journey that unfolds.

Much Love, BG

www.nuruinternational.org- if you're interested in what she's doing